Agriculture deputy minister Paddy Zhanda has said the remaining white commercial farmers in the country should be spared and given the responsibility of training extension officers, most of whom are still inexperienced.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
Zhanda made the remarks at the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers field day in Watsomba, Mutasa Central constituency, where successful small-scale dairy farmers were honoured.
He said the extension officers were drawing a lot of salaries from the fiscus, but producing little on the ground.
“Extension officers, we don’t train farmers at workshops. Most of them are also coming from colleges without experience, we are producing greenhorn students,” Zhanda said.
“These extension station officers come from college greenhorn, not knowing anything. Extension officers, we don’t do training of farmers at workshops. The other thing you will see them five or six at one farm, you will end up confusing the farmer.”
He said while the National Budget was below $4 billion, 80% of that was going towards salaries.
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“Nothing is coming from it (budget). In 1995 and 1996 we produced 2,6 million tonnes of maize before the land reform, that is almost two tonnes per hectare.,” said Zhanda.
“Now we have six extension officers per farmer we are producing 0,5 tonnes per hectare, find the difference, they are not doing their jobs. These remaining commercial farmers should be deliberately spared by the government so that they can act as colleges for extension officers.”
Zhanda said dairy farming was on the rebound, adding there was need to take small-scale farming seriously .
‘’Dairy farming is a business and we should take it seriously.
“If our small-scale farmer has one or two cattle, then we are not doing anything, we need to improve on that. Donor organisations, let’s develop a template which is viable on the level of small-scale farmers should be.”
